While I may not bathe bucknaked in the sea of geek like the other two A’s; I more than just stick my toe in the waters. In fact I would say that I pretty much stand chest deep and usually think of going deeper.

That being said, my knowledge of geeky things is extensive, and being a trivia nerd, it has come in handy more than once. However, there’re just some things I don’t know. A few of those oversights are enough to get my geeky brethren to rush up to Atlanta. Just so they can tie me to a tree, throw copies of the Star Wars prequels around my feet, and set me ablaze.

These three things will ensure that if not corrected, I will never see the pimply gates of Geek Heaven. Continue reading →

Alright, I suppose I owe DC an apology on this one. I figured I should put my money where my mouth was and give this new Green Lantern a chance (Which is why they numbered this #0? Along with a bunch of other titles? Christ, they make less sense every week.).

Apparently Hal Jordan has gone off reservation somewhere in the previous twelve issues, which has left his ring searching for a new recipient. But we don’t start with that. In fact, I would say this issue is a perfect place for someone new to the New 52 (can it still be new when it’s a year later?) to hop on. Continue reading →

Did you really think we’d get through another week without either DC or Marvel pulling some sort of idiotic publicity stunt?

This week it’s another go-round on the DC Diversity Carousel of Unprogress. Since New 52 has launched, they made Starfire into a sex-starved alien maniac, shoved Harley Quinn into some sort of weird BSDM outfit, introduced a literally flaming homosexual Green Lantern, and now…well…

What you’re seeing on the left is DC’s attempt to diversify its Earth-based GL Corp (and why are there so many humans in a supposedly intergalactic organization?) by introducing a character of Middle Eastern descent.

Wearing a ski mask.

Wielding a gun.

BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY THE WAY TO SHOW THAT YOU’RE INCLUSIVE TO PEOPLE OF ALL CULTURAL BACKGROUNDS IS TO MAKE A MINORITY CHARACTER LOOK LIKE HE’S ABOUT TO ROB A LIQUOR STORE!

Can we go back to shoving Starfire into progressively smaller bikinis? Misogyny in comics I can at least understand. This – I don’t see how this made it past anyone in the editor’s bullpen.

Like this:

Alright, apparently there’s enough inanity happening in the comic-verse, that I need to speak up or be called out by my movie-lovin’ brethren.

And, let me tell you, when a movie nerd is telling a comic nerd that there’s hot new news he needs to cover…let’s just say I had to reassess some priorities.

One of these really isn’t a spoiler (unless you’ve been on an internet sabbatical), but involves some pretty big names; the other is deeply obscure, but possibly farther reaching. Join me after the jump to soak in the nerd rage. Continue reading →

New week, new round of polls. After last week’s kaiju vs. deity face-off, we’re back to our regularly scheduled programming. For those new faces, here’s the drill. Pick one Marvel comic from the poll, one DC comic from the other poll. I’ll pit them together in a face-off after they’re released on New Comic Day. In the event of a tie, I reserve the right to completely manipulate the results to my twisted desires.

Like this:

Really, has there ever been a more perfect title than that? As made clear by my completely democratic polls, there were only two titles that I even considered this week. One is about a destructive force of nature that decimates everything in its wake, uncaring about the lives it takes.

The other is about Godzilla.

Go-Go Godzilla!

“Godzilla: The Half Century War” is a rare treat in that it’s a mainstream release about a pop culture icon by renowned indie cartoonist James Stokoe. His art style is a refreshingly stylized break from the glossy, hyper-realistic superhero books that line the shelves. Stokoe’s overwrought style serves the subject well in that the scenes of widespread destruction capture a real visceral quality. Part of me wonders if he can keep this up over five issues. I get hand cramps just looking at some of these layouts. The amount of detail that goes into the splash pages are astounding. And the big guy himself has never looked this good. Nearly every page he’s in could stand on its own as a separate artwork.

The story itself is an interesting one, detailing the beginning of one man’s fifty-year obsession with Godzilla and the other kaiju. Fairly staid for an artist who peddles in insane plot points, like sacrificing a sibling to use as an ingredient in a cooking competition or using severed, sliced penises as currency; but then we’re talking about a thousand-foot energy-breathing dinosaur, craziness is baked right in to the concept. Honestly, the story is secondary; but it does a fine job of keeping up with the art and gives me plenty of excuses to come back for the next issue.

Again, another light voting week made it oh so easy for me to tweak the Marvel results to my heart’s desire (though I will admit, Janie, I heard great things about the new “Hawkeye” series). DC was particularly difficult, though, as everyone voted for something different (so I just went with the top result alphabetically…which was also the one I wanted). This week’s face-off: “Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe” #1 vs. “Animal Man” #12.

They’re all dead here

The Deadpool title is the first of a 4-part miniseries that follows in the great Marvel “What If?” tradition. We open in classic form, with the Watcher, egg-headed alternate-universe space voyeur, discussing the gravity of the carnage we are about to witness. Also in classic form, we dive right into the action, with Reed Richards dying in his wife’s arms, orange rubble all around them (the remains of The Thing). A couple of decapitations later (not all by Deadpool) and we’re knee deep into a flashback that’s one part Arkham Asylum, one part standard quippy Deadpool, with white and yellow internal dialogue boxes intact. Luckily we don’t spend a long time on set up here, just enough to give us the lay of the land, then we get to find out what happens when the silly voices in Deadpool’s head stop and something darker (literally) takes their place. The ending comes way too quickly (which is partially because I want more and partially because Marvel’s page count is too low) and sets things up for what promises to be a thoroughly entertaining unmaking of a Marvel-verse. I’ll be picking up the rest of the issues, for sure.

Only you can fight against Swamp Thing crotch

Animal Man I had heard good things about. How the writing was above-average. How it was revitalizing DC horror comics. Maybe I got a dud issue, but I couldn’t work up much interest in this one. I think part of the problem was that it was mostly a recap issue (ostensibly for people like me who said to themselves “Huh, it actually made it a whole year? I suppose I should check it out.”). Now there were some other things in there, cool things like Animal Man discovering he could track down Swamp Thing via a digested bit of plant in the gut of a rabbit (who was in the gut of a gator); but they were bogged down by the oh-so-tired mechanic of “Hey I just met you, and this is crazy, but here’s my entire backstory, so let’s save the world maybe?” I will give the creative team credit for intelligent writing (they obviously have a deep story they’re working with here) and art that is lush and uncompromising (there’s more detail work in the page borders here than there is in entire splash pages of other books). But despite it being a soft-introduction to the current plotline, it didn’t grab me.

Obviously, Deadpool and his stabby-stabby, bang-bang tour of the Marvel universe get my vote this week. So that’s twice that Marvel comes out on top! I’d love for a DC title to rise to the occasion and break my Marvel predisposition (just more history there). Keep an eye out for next week’s poll and give me something good to chew on!

It’s that time again! Hit the jump, pick two titles (one Marvel, one DC) for me to procure, then I’ll pit them against each other on Wednesday to determine which I would continue reading with the next issue.

There are some interesting titles this week. There’s a new issue of “Age of Apocalypse” which revists one of my favorite classic alt-verses in Marvel. Also, issue #12 of “Animal Man,” billed as one of the true winners in DC’s reboot fiasco. And…”Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe?” Oooooooh.